Tone Sandhi Revisited

Tone sandhi is when the tone of a character in a multi character word is changed.

Let us look at this table as how tone changes, which I have given elsewhere already.

Tone Sandhi biang3diao7 變調｜变调 changing tones

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
The above tones change to the ones below.
1	6	2 or 5	8	7	7	7	4

Tones 1 and 7 do not change their tones and similarly the final character of a multi character word does not change its tone.

Therefore, there is no tone changes in huang1ze5 番薯 sweet potato. Similarly, there are no tone changes for zoi7sia7 㩼謝｜㩼谢 bhuê7zai1 未知 hung1hu3 吩咐 cê1sio1bao1 叉燒包 a1’di6 阿弟 gê1têng5 家庭

However, let us look at deng2lai6 轉內｜转内 which to return home. The deng2 will change to tone 6 i.e. deng(6)lai6 轉內｜转内 .

Similarly, let us look at the examples below. All the examples below are from the three previous posts on tones.

zên6zên6 靜靜｜静静	peaceful and calm	zên(7)zên6 靜靜｜静静
ao6mung5 後門｜后门	back door	ao(7)mung5 後門｜后门
ru5i3 如意	according to one’s wishes	ru(7)i3 如意
ciag4iao3 切要	important	ciag(8)iao3 切要
ao6boin5 後畔｜后畔	behind, at the back	ao(7)boin5 後畔｜后畔

 I hope you have had a good revision on tone sandhi.